A prior folding apparatus is known from WO 97/24284 A2. Such a folding apparatus is arranged, for example, at the outlet of a rotary printing press purpose of this folding apparatus is for cutting an imprinted, possibly longitudinally folded web of material, which can consist of one or several layers, into sections, called signatures, and for cutting these signatures once or several times.
In contrast to the course of material movement followed during a printing process, the folding process requires, particularly in the course of transferring the signature from the folding blade cylinder to the folding jaw cylinder, movements of the signature transversely to its surface, which movements are hampered by the flow resistance of the air. For this reason, during a continuous folding process, in which the freshly imprinted web of material is directly fed to a folding apparatus, the maximum operating speed of the folding apparatus is the one factor which limits the processing speed of the entire production process. A further speed-limiting factor results from the fact that the cylinders of the folding apparatus, with their folding blades and folding jaws, have a multitude of elements which need to be abruptly accelerated and braked during the folding operation and which are therefore subject to wear, which wear increases superproportionally with increasing processing speed.
In order to increase the flexibility of a folding apparatus, which is a part of a continuous production process, and in particular to make possible the production of items with a differing number of folds, it is known to equip the cylinders of a folding apparatus with grippers, which grippers make possible the guiding of the signatures through the apparatus without folding. However, since these grippers also perform a discontinuous movement, they also limit the processing speed of the printing process even if no fold is being created in the folding apparatus. Moreover, these grippers increase the number of elements which are subject to wear, and which therefore require maintenance.
DE 195 26169 A1, DE 195 09 947 A1 and DE 36 26 287 A1 each describe a folding apparatus to which an additional module can be laterally connected. This additional module has a feeding track with a paddle wheel and a belt delivery for conveying signatures which were not transversely folded.
EP 0 451 573 A 1 discloses a folding unit with a conveying track. A signature shunt is provided for the selective conveyance of signatures to two delivery devices. A retardation device for slowing down the signatures is arranged between the signature shunt and the delivery devices.
DE 12 04 689 B shows a folding apparatus with a conveying track for conveying signatures to a paddle wheel, and a conveyor belt device for carrying off signatures. The removal direction of the conveyor belt device extends parallel with the axis of rotation of the paddle wheel.
A folding apparatus with a conveyor track is known from EP 0 005 822 A1. A signature shunt is arranged upstream of two delivery devices. Each of the delivery devices has a paddle wheel, whose axis of rotation extends transversely with respect to the conveying direction of the conveying track.
DE 196 10 900 A1 discloses a folding apparatus with a cutting device, a folding device for transverse folding, a conveying track and at least one delivery device. Two longitudinal formers are arranged upstream of this folding apparatus. A web path leads to the folding device from a longitudinal former. A web path from the other longitudinal former leads to the conveying track.